Toolkit for Reduction of Medical Administration Errors for Nurses

Toolkit for Reduction of Medical Administration Errors for Nurses: An Annotated Resource
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Toolkit for Reduction of Medical Administration Errors for Nurses: An Annotated Resource
In December 2017, a nurse was charged for homicide after a 75 years old patient was injected with paralytic anesthetic vecuronium instead of the prescribed Versed sedative (Loller, 2019). Earlier the same year, an $800,000 federal government settlement was awarded to the family of an Air Force veteran following a medical error (Ross, 2019). The veteran was injected with pegfilgrastim instead of filgrastim at Dorn VA hospital in North Carolina. Three years earlier, 2650 miles to the West of North Carolina, in Sacramento (CDMH, 2014), the California Department of Public Health penalized a long-term acute-care facility $75,000 for a medical error administered by a patient an excessive amount of Levophed. These three cases are supposed to highlight the prevalence and seriousness of nursing medical errors. What is standard across the cases is that all the patients succumbed. According to the FDA (2019), over 100,000 suspected cases of medication errors are reported annually.
Annotated Bibliography
Therefore, the current paper provides an information tool kit focusing on promoting safety with medication administration. The bibliographic narration focuses on four key themes: most common errors, causes of errors, their impact, and potential solutions.
Most Common Errors
MacDowell, P., Cabri, A., & Davis, M. (2021, March 12). Medication Administration Errors. Patient Safety Network.  HYPERLINK "https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/medication-administration-errors" https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/medication-administration-errors
The authors assert that since the 1990s, medication errors have remained a key target for improving patient safety within health facilities. The authors establish five categories of errors: right patient, medication, time, dose, and route. Additional rights added years later focus on correct documentation, reason, response, and form. With the advancement in technology, system design is also an important aspect. Since nurses interact with patients in medical facilities and homes, errors are bound to occur in both places. The authors conclude that the most common errors include missing doses, wrong medication, and wrong dose.
Wondmieneh, A., Alemu, W., Tadele, N., & Demis, A. (2020). Medication administration errors and contributing factors among nurses: a cross sectional study in tertiary hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. BMC Nursing, 19(1), 1-9. The authors undertook a cross-sectional study focusing on tertiary hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of the study was to determine the most common medication errors and the contributing factors among nurses in the region. A self-administered survey questionnaire was completed by 298 nurses selected randomly. The study found that, for various reasons, 68.1% of respondents had committed a medication administration error. The standard errors found among the nurses include wrong dosage, missing...